Dealers said the turnabout came in midsession, when short sellers began covering their earlier sales with purchases.

"As this became apparent, the sellers began holding back and those who had sold short earlier this week began to buy out of their positions."

He suspects that sellers will begin to examine more closely the cost of all the small tasks handled by agents.

Mr. Messina said that as the market cooled, disappointed sellers were beginning to steam.

Some sellers have recently begun adding a 3 percent "buyer's fee" to the sale price of apartments to help defray these costs.

Buyers and sellers often begin with extensive knowledge of autos and therefore speak a common language.

Ideally, buyers should ask the sellers to begin compiling the requested information as soon as a decision to purchase has been made.

But once sellers begin to drop their asking prices, housing industry officials hope that home sales will start to rise again.

Houses that had sold in three months were sitting on the market for nine months or longer, and sellers began lowering their expectations.

But his first best seller, "The Valachi Papers," began with a tip.